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TRIBUTE 



OP THE 



Chamber of Commerc 



OF THE 



STATE OF NEW-YORK 



TO THE MEMORY OP 



GENERAL WM. T. SHERMAN. 



FEBRUARY 17, 1891. 



NEW- YORK : 
PRESS OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 

1891. 



12 J 



.1 
.S saris 



A 

a- 



TRIBUTE 



TO THE MEMORY OF 



GENERAL WM. T. SHERMAN 



To afford the merchants and business men of 
New- York an opportunity to express, in a public 
manner, their regard for the memory of General 
Sherman, their sympathy for his bereaved family, 
and their sense of the loss sustained by the nation 
of a great soldier, patriot and statesman, a special 
meeting of the Chamber of Commerce was held 
Tuesday, February 17th, 1891. 

Mr. Charles S. Smith, President of the Chamber, 
presided, and said : 

Gentlemen : General Sherman, the last of the 
great leaders in our late war, has followed Lincoln 
and Farragttt, Seward and Chase, Grant, Sher- 
idan and Porter to the tomb. 



In the death of Sherman this Chamber has not 
only lost its most conspicuous honorary member, 
but a friend endeared to us by intimate association, 
and to whom we are indebted for many kind and 
considerate acts. It is impossible to appreciate the 
grandeur of a great mountain peak when standing 
near its base. And so with the life of a great man. 
The perspective of time and distance is necessary to 
determine the exact place which the final judgment 
of posterity will assign to him. It is absolutely cer- 
tain that history will write the name of William 
Tecumseh Sherman conspicuously upon the page 
devoted to those who founded and saved the 
Republic ; and his memory will be cherished in the 
hearts of the people as long as patriotic service, 
unswerving integrity and lovable qualities are ap- 
preciated among men. 



RESOLUTIONS. 

Mr. J. Edward Simmons offered the following 
preamble and resolutions, and moved their adop- 
tion: 

Whereas, The members of the Chamber of Com- 
merce but a short time since were called to assemble 
in the presence of a severe national bereavement to 
pay their tribute of respect to the character and 



noble labors of a distinguished civilian and states- 
man, having under his care the fiduciary interests of 
the Republic ; and 

Whereas, To-day, by the dispensation of an all- 
wise Providence, we meet to pay our tribute of 
affectionate regard to the memory of a great soldier 
whose splendid services in the long struggle for the 
preservation of the Union were as brilliant as they 
were successful, and whose achievements illustrated 
the greatness of a soldier who in conquest knew no 
hate, and in whose magnanimity there was no 
revenge ; therefore, 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the 
State of New- York hereby places on record its 
unanimous sentiment of profound sorrow because of 
the irreparable bereavement the nation has sustained 
in the death of our distinguished soldier citizen, 
General William Tecumseh Sherman. 

Resolved, That by the death of General Sherman 
the world has lost one of its greatest military heroes. 
Pure in heart, of spotless integrity, cool and undis- 
mayed in danger, he not only won honor and renown 
from the soldiers of his command, but he invariably 
inspired them with confidence, friendship and af- 
fection. He was the soldier of Justice, Right and 



6 

Truth, and he has passed from our midst as a bril- 
liant star pales and vanishes from the morning sky. 

Resolved, That the results achieved by the late 
war were largely due to the consummate skill, 
adroit strategy and matchless generalship of Wil- 
liam Tecumseh Sherman, and that the people of 
this Republic are indebted to him for his eminent 
services in securing to them the inestimable blessings 
of a united and prosperous country. 

Resolved, That as a public spirited citizen he 
proved himself to be a capable man of affairs, with 
a deep interest in many of our local institutions. As 
an honorary member he has presided over the 
deliberations of this Chamber, and his genial pres- 
ence was seldom missed at our annual banquets. 
Socially he was the peer of those with whom com- 
panionship had a charm, and illustrated in his inter- 
course all the qualities of a nobleman in the 
amenities of life. His home was a haven of repose, 
and love and gentleness were the angels that minis- 
tered at his fireside. 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce hereby 
tenders to the family of General Sherman the 
expression of sincere sympathy in the hour of their 
bereavement. 



ADDRESS BY THE HON. CARL SCHURZ. 

Gentlemen : The adoption by the Chamber of 
Commerce of these resolutions which I have the 
honor to second, is no mere perfunctory proceeding. 
We have been called here by a genuine impulse of 
the heart. To us General Sherman was not a great 
man like other great men, honored and revered at a 
distance. We had the proud and happy privilege 
of calling him one of us. Only a few months ago, 
at the annual meeting of this Chamber, we saw the 
familiar face of our honorary member on this plat- 
form by the side of our President. Only a few 
weeks ago he sat at our banquet table, as he had 
often before, in the happiest mood of conviviality, 
and contributed to the enjoyment of the night with 
his always unassuming and always charming speech. 
And as he moved among us without the slightest 
pomp of self-conscious historic dignity, only with 
the warm and simple geniality of his nature, it 
would cost us sometimes an effort of the memory to 
recollect that he was the renowned captain who had 
marshaled mighty armies victoriously on many a 
battlefield, and whose name stood, and will for ever 
stand, in the very foremost rank of the saviours of 
this Republic, and of the great soldiers of the 
world's history. Indeed, no American could have 



forgotten this for a moment; but the affection of 
those who were so happy as to come near to him, 
would sometimes struggle to outrun their veneration 
and gratitude. 

Death has at last conquered the hero of so many 
campaigns ; our cities and towns and villages are 
decked with flags at half-mast ; the muffled drum 
and the funereal cannon-boom will resound over 
the land as his dead body passes to the final rest- 
ing place ; and the American people stand mourn- 
fully gazing into the void left by the sudden dis- 
appearance of the last of the greatest men brought 
forth by our war of regeneration, — and this last also 
finally become, save Abraham Lincoln alone, the 
most widely beloved. He is gone ; but as we of the 
present generation remember it, history will tell all 
coming centuries the romantic story of the famous 
"March to the Sea," — how, in the dark days of 
1864, Sherman, having worked his bloody way to 
Atlanta, then cast off all his lines of supply and 
communication, and, like a bold diver into the dark 
unknown, seemed to vanish with all his hosts from 
the eyes of the world, until his triumphant re- 
appearance on the shores of the ocean proclaimed to 
the anxiously expecting millions, that now the final 
victory was no longer doubtful, and that the Re- 
public would surely be saved. 

Nor will history fail to record that this great 



9 

general was, as a victorious soldier, a model of 
republican citizenship. When he had done his 
illustrious deeds, he rose step by step to the highest 
rank in the army, and then, grown old, he retired. 
The Republic made provision for him in modest 
republican style. He was satisfied. He asked for 
no higher reward. Although the splendor of his 
achievements, and the personal affection for him, 
which every one of his soldiers carried home, made 
him the most popular American of his day, and 
although the most glittering prizes were not seldom 
held up before his eyes, he remained untroubled by 
ulterior ambition. No thought that the Republic 
owed him more ever darkened his mind. No man 
could have spoken to him of the "ingratitude of 
Republics," without meeting from him a stern 
rebuke. And so, content with the consciousness of 
a great duty nobly done, he was happy in the love 
of his fellow citizens. 

Indeed, he may truly be said to have been in his old 
age, not only the most beloved, but also the happiest 
of Americans. Many years he lived in the midst of 
posterity. His task was finished, and this he wisely 
understood. His deeds had been passed upon by 
the judgment of history, and irrevocably registered 
among the glories of his country and his age. His 
generous heart envied no one, and wished every 
one well ; and ill-will had long ceased to pursue him. 



10 

Beyond cavil his fame was secure, and he enjoyed it 
as that which he had honestly earned, with a genu- 
ine and ever fresh delight, openly avowed by the 
charming frankness of his nature. He dearly loved 
to be esteemed and cherished by his fellow-men, and 
what he valued most, his waning years brought him 
in ever increasing abundance. Thus he was in truth 
a most happy man, and his days went down like an 
evening sun in a cloudless autumn sky. And when 
now the American people, with that peculiar tender- 
ness of affection which they have long borne him, lay 
him in his grave, the happy ending of his great life 
may soothe the pang of bereavement they feel in their 
hearts at the loss of the old hero who was so dear to 
them, and of whom they were and always will be so 
proud. His memory will ever be bright to us all ; 
his truest monument will be the greatness of the 
Republic he served so well ; and his fame will never 
cease to be prized by a grateful country, as one of 
its most precious possessions. 



11 



ADDKESS BY GENERAL HORACE PORTER. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : I take a 
pleasure, mingled with inexpressible grief, in rising 
to second the very appropriate resolutions submitted 
in honor of the memory of the last of our pre-eminent 
military chieftains. While we all share in the 
general grief of the nation, I know that there are 
many members of this body upon whom the blow 
falls individually — those who, like myself, have 
been associated upon terms of intimacy with General 
Sherman, both in war and in peace, and to whom 
this news come home with a sorrow which is akin to 
the grief of a personal bereavement. 

By no act of ours can we expect to add one more 
laurel to his brow. The world has already heaped 
upon him all its honors. The nation raised him to 
the highest military rank ; Congress tendered him 
votes of thanks ; our leading universities vied with 
each other in conferring upon him their highest 
degrees ; at home and abroad, clubs and societies 
made him an honorary member ; innumerable medals 
have been struck in his honor. We cannot expect 
to add to his earthly glory. We can only gather 
together and respectfully testify our esteem for the 
soldier, our affection for the man. 

While General Sherman was a person of marvel- 



12 

lous versatility of talent, while he was a many-sided 
man, while he possessed rare qualities and had en- 
joyed a varied experience in most of the useful walks 
of life, yet his great fame will always rest upon his 
merits as a soldier. With him the chief character- 
istics of the soldier seemed unborn. In his very 
walk, in his very look, there was something which 
always spoke of the typical soldier ; with his 
closely-knit brows, his deep, penetrating, restless 
eyes, his aquiline nose, there was something in his 
look which savored of the piercing glance of the 
eagle. In war he was bold in conception, fixed in 
purpose, and untiring in effort. He was singularly 
self-reliant, always demonstrated by his acts, that 
"much danger makes great hearts most resolute." 
He possessed an intuitive knowledge of topography. 
He seemed to combine in his own person the patience 
of a Fabius with the restlessness of a Hotspur. He 
was fertile in expedients, and quick to adapt the 
means at hand to the accomplishment of an end. 
He enjoyed a personal reputation unsullied, of un- 
impeachable integrity. He had a physique which 
enabled him to endure all the hardships incident to 
the most active campaign. It was no wonder that 
the world placed him in the first rank of the earth's 
great captains. 

Students of military history, both at home and 
abroad, have studied his campaigns and made them 



13 

their models. They have ranked his work on a 
level with that of the great masters of military 
science. 

The popular mind will always be fond of picturing 
him as a chieftain whose field of military operations 
covered nearly half a continent ; as a commander 
whose orders always spoke with the true bluntness 
of the soldier, as a leader who had penetrated ever- 
glades and bayous, who had fought from valleys' 
depths to mountain heights, and marched from 
inland rivers to the sea. 

He possessed one conspicuous characteristic which 
I am sure all have noticed, and that was that in all 
his writings, in all his speeches, he always uttered 
the loftiest sentiments of patriotism. In his ad- 
dresses to the old and young, he never failed to 
inculcate in their minds the principle that the 
highest type of virtue in the citizen or the soldier 
is a love of country. Who can ever forget the 
last time we met him in this very Chamber, when 
he honored us by coming here and delivering that 
memorable address of welcome to the Pan-American 
Congress, an address so full of historical incidents, 
so replete with the loftiest sentiments of patriotism, 
so expressive of his pride in the progress of the 
country, and his unalterable faith in its great 
future. So marvellous was that address, that when 
he ceased to speak a painful sense of stillness 



14 

seemed to fall upon the ear, and the representatives 
of all the Americas sat spellbound under the charm. 
His death has caused a gap in this community 
which time and men can never fill. We thought we 
had a right to expect, from the elasticity of his step, 
from the activity of his life, from the possession of all 
his marvellous faculties, that we might have him here 
among us and enjoy his companionship for years to 
come ; but Providence ordered it otherwise, and we 
can only bow to the decree. We have said our last 
farewell to the illustrious soldier, the silver cord has 
been loosed, the golden bowl has been broken, and 
his spirit has winged its flight from earth ; we shall 
not meet the great leader again until he stands 
forth to answer to his name at roll call on the morn- 
ing of the last great reveille. The laurel on his brow 
is now intertwined with the cypress, the flag he so 
often upheld has dropped to half-mast, the echo of 
his guns has given place to the tolling of cathedral 
bells, and America finds herself once more standing 
within the shadow of a profound grief. There is 
some consolation, some compensation in his death — 
it is the consciousness that the country and the 
world are better for his having lived therein ; that 
he has handed down to posterity the richest legacy 
which man can leave to man — the memory of a good 
name — the inheritance of a great example. 



15 



ADDRESS BY THE HON. ABRAM S. HEWITT. 

Mr. President : I came here prepared to listen, 
not to speak, and after the singularly eloquent and 
just tributes which have been made to the memory 
of our departed hero, I feel reluctant to trench upon 
ground which has been covered by the resolutions 
and the graceful remarks of the President, Mr. 
Schurz and General Porter, But it occurs to me 
that I may with propriety refer to some points in 
the career of General Sherman which shed a new 
light upon his character and lustre upon his fame. 
These incidents are known only to me, and it is not 
inappropriate to make them known to others. We 
all remember the agitation of the country at the 
time when the Electoral Commission was passing in 
1877, upon the disputed succession to the Presidency. 
General Sherman was then at the head of the army. 
The term of President Grant was coming to a 
close ; the electoral count had not been finished, and 
there was great apprehension on the part of patriotic 
men that Congress might break up without deciding 
who had been elected President. The horrors of the 
Civil War from which we had emerged seemed about 
to be renewed. 

Profoundly impressed with the dangers of the 
situation, it occurred to me that I ought to have a 



16 

consultation with General Sherman, and to ask him 
what would be his course as commanding officer of 
the army of the United States in case the count 
should not be completed. We had an interview in 
which I explained the situation and discussed the 
dangers which might follow. He coincided with 
me as to the peril before us, when I asked him what 
his course would be in case the count should not be 
finished, and the services of the army might be re- 
quired to preserve public order. I told him that 
suggestions had been made that President Grant, 
under the circumstances, ought to hold over in 
order to prevent the chaos which would ensue from 
a vacancy in the office of President. I asked General 
Sherman whether, under such circumstances, he 
would obey the orders of President Grant. He 
replied : 

"Mr. Hewitt, I have sworn to obey the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and I will perform my 
duty. The term of President Grant ends at twelve 
o'clock on the 4th of March. He will then be in no 
position to give orders to me, and I shall receive no 
orders from him, but I will take care that the 
dangers of anarchy shall not be experienced by the 
country. The people have elected a President, and 
a competent authority will be found to declare who 
is elected, and I shall obey the orders of the one who 



17 

shall be declared to be President of the United 
States." 

I replied, "General Sherman, the difficulty is 
that the two Honses may disagree, and there may 
be no completion of the count. What would you 
then do?" 

He said, " I trust that the responsibility will not 
be placed upon me, but if it shall happen that I 
must elect between the two undoubted candidates 
for the office, and Congress shall break up without 
declaring the result in consequence of the failure of 
the House to do its duty, I shall be constrained to 
recognize the mandate of the Senate of the United 
States as decisive of the question." 

I said to him, " General, there is no precedent for 
such a course, and the Senate will not have the right 
to decide the question." 

To this he replied : "It must be decided by some- 
body ; and in the presence of a danger which 
involves the safety of the Union and the peace and 
order of the country, the General of the army would 
be compelled to recognize the underlying principle 
that the safety of the people is the supreme law." 

I replied: "General, I do not see that you can 
take any other course, because it would be a fatal 
precedent if the President should hold over, and it 
was mainly to get your opinion upon that point that 
I have sought this interview." 



18 

Of course, I knew what his decision meant, and 
that the candidate, whose election I had advocated, 
would not be recognized by him as President. I 
knew also that the country would be saved from 
civil war. It was the knowledge of this fact that 
contributed very largely to the completion of the 
count. Certainly, great gratitude is due to General 
Sherman for his military services, but I think we 
will all recognize now that his action in a moment of 
public peril preserved the stability of the country, 
and entitles him to the highest credit for firmness 
and patriotism. We not only owe to him the com- 
pletion of the civil war, and the regeneration of the 
Republic, but he is entitled to our gratitude for 
having preserved us from untold calamities which 
would have followed a conflict between political 
parties, dividing every family and household in the 
land. 

One other fact, and I am done. When General 
Sherman was about to be retired from the office of 
General, in consequence of having reached the statu- 
tory limitation, which in the army was 62 years, there 
was a very general desire on the part of the public, 
concurred in by the members of Congress, to repeal 
the limitation of the statute in his case, as it had 
been made inoperative in the ?case of Admiral 
Porter. As I was Chairman of the Sub-Committee 
in charge of the Army Appropriation Bill, I was 



19 

asked to see General Sherman", and ascertain 
whether an amendment to the bill, removing the 
statutory limitation in his case, would be acceptable. 
His reply was instantaneous : 

" No ; I am a soldier and a citizen. I always 
obey the law ; I do not desire to have a change in 
my favor, as it expresses the judgment of the people 
in regard to the duration of military service. Be- 
sides, there are other officers who have rights in the 
premises. If J remain here, others will be deprived 
of promotion. No ; I will not accept any lengthening 
of my term of service ; but when the time arrives for 
me to retire, I will go into the ranks of private life 
and perform my duties as a citizen, leaving to others 
the exercise of military power which belongs to this 
office." 

I know of nothing more beautiful in the character 
of any man who has ever come under my notice than 
the inherent patriotism which characterized every 
element of General Sherman's character. I know 
of nothing more admirable than the unselfish way 
in which he was ready to lay down rank and power 
on the altar of Justice. He has set an example to 
us, and to the generations who are to come after us, 
the value of which cannot be estimated. If the time 
should ever come when selfish ambition should lead 
towards a military despotism, the example of 
General Sherman will, I am sure, save us from im- 



20 

pending calamity, and will encourage the people to 
preserve their Government even at the cost of for- 
tune and life. 



21 



addeess by me. william e. dodge. 

Me. Peesident and Gentlemen of the Cham- 
bee : Some of us who are here remember, with 
deep emotion, those last days of the war, and how 
the tension under which we had been held for so many- 
years was loosened when news came of the surrender 
of Lee. We remember how, by a common impulse, 
great masses of the people gathered in Wail Street, 
in Pearl Street and in William Street, and from a 
hundred thousand throats went up that glad dox- 
logy of thanksgiving to God. 

Lincoln and Geant and Sheeman we had loved 
and trusted before. Then they were enshrined in 
our hearts. Years have come and gone — years of 
peace and prosperity and marvellous advance ; but 
the lustre of these great names has never grown 
dim, and we have loved them more and honored 
them more sincerely as those years went by. 

Lincoln's tragic death, Geant' s political life and 
his long, lingering illness, touching our hearts, kept 
those two great souls from the enjoyment and honor 
which would have come to them if they had lived 
as Sheeman did. 

As has been so well said to-day, Sheeman really 
lived in posterity. His life has been most unique. 

After a magnificent preparation for work — after a 



22 

great life of heroic courage and grand service for the 
country he loved so much, he came to the duties of 
a simple citizen with a heartiness and sincerity and 
fullness of life that made him loved by everybody. 

There has been something very delightful about 
the life of General Sherman in New- York. Even 
during this last winter, wherever he has been he has 
met with, a love and admiration which have been 
wonderful. Into whatever company he came he was 
easily first. "Where he sat was the head of the 
table." And, although I think he had but little 
vanity or egotism, he must certainly have enjoyed 
the admiration of the people about him just as a 
father loves the glad sparkle in the eyes of his chil- 
dren when he comes to them. 

Some great men need no eulogy. They have im- 
pressed themselves so fully upon the age that no 
words will add to the impression they have left. 
The most eloquent words that can be spoken of such 
men are but weak. In the full heart of every patri- 
otic man here, tender and grateful thoughts, moving 
more rapidly than the words of any speaker, will be 
to each one a better eulogy of the life of such a man 
as Sherman. 

I think that as merchants there is a peculiar fitness 
in our gathering to express our love and honor for 
the memory of this great man. 

During the war no class of people in this country 



23 

did more loyal service than the merchants of this 
city. They gave freely of their money and their 
time ; many gave themselves or their children. 
They had everything at stake. 

When Sherman swung off towards the sea, with 
those splendid soldiers, Howard and Slocum, and 
was lost to sight, what a tension of feeling there 
was through all this city. We knew it was the 
crisis of the war, and our hearts bounded with hope 
and gladness when the news came that he had 
reached the sea, and that the beginning of the end 
had come. 

So much has been said, and said so well, as to the 
character of this grand old man, that I shall say 
nothing more, but I hope I shall be pardoned for a 
single word as to the lesson these great lives teach 
us. Their personal presence has gone. There is 
nothing now but the happy memory of grand and 
heroic service. 

But we must remember that peace has duties as 
great, and dangers as real, as war. There is an 
opportunity for full and heroic lives to be lived in 
these times, and if these great souls could come 
back to life, I know there is nothing would till their 
hearts with such delight as to feel that some of the 
robustness of manhood, and vigor in action, they 
showed in war, were being shown by us in our daily 
lives and duties here. 



24 

Republics have not gone down in wars. They 
have gone down from the enervation that came with 
luxury and self-indulgence, and all the dangers that 
follow wealth and prosperity. 

We, as merchants, as men of affairs, who have a 
stake here, must take our stand valiantly, and try 
to preserve the heritage they have left ns. 

The other night I had the privilege of attending a 
most impressive gathering. The great hall of Cooper 
Institute was filled to overflowing, and almost as 
many on the outside, of those who had been the 
recipients of the bounty and the wise and thoughtful 
kindness of our dear friend, the late Mr. Peter 
Cooper. 

I was touched by a remark made by a dis- 
tinguished speaker, who had been chosen when a 
pupil of the school to make an address to Mr. 
Cooper on one of his birthdays. He said Mr. 
Cooper gave them good advice in reply, and then 
added, ; ' Young men, my object in business has 
been to make as much money as I could honestly 
and honorably, but my object in life has been to do 
good to those who are about me." 

If such a great impulse can come into our lives, 
drawing us away from the dangers that come in 
these days of prosperity and peace, we can establish 
our manhood and do our duty with something of 
the same magnificent courage shown by those great 
souls who have left us. 



25 

The President submitted the following letter from 
General Thomas Hillhouse, who was unable to 
attend the meeting : 

New-York, February 17, 1891. 

Dear Sir : I regret that circumstances will prevent 
me from attending the meeting of the Chamber of 
Commerce today, but I do most sincerely approve 
the object and purpose for which it is called. 

One by one the great commanders of the Civil 
War disappear from the theatre of their memora- 
ble achievements. Grant, Sheridan, Thomas, 
Meade, and now Sherman. They have done their 
work ; they have fought their last battles ; and it 
only remains for history to record their deeds, and 
to give them their proper rank amongst the great 
commanders of the world. 

These are not words of mere adulation. If sec- 
tional animosities are forgotten ; if a race has been 
set free ; if the Union, one and indivisible, still re- 
flects its benignant light throughout the world ; if 
" government of the people, by the people and for the 
people has not perished from the earth," it is due in 
no small measure to the men who so successfully led 
the armies of the Union to final victory. They were 
the trusted lieutenants of the great President in his 
struggle to maintain the integrity of this Govern- 
ment. They took up their work with faith in them- 



26 

selves, faith in the cause, and faith in the magnificent 
armies they commanded, and they accomplished it. 

And now Sherman. He too has followed his 
comrades in arms ; he too has joined " the innumera- 
ble host that moves to the pale realms of shade ;" 
but he was spared to see the end of the contest in 
which he bore so conspicuous a part. The army 
confided to him, he directed with consummate skill 
to a definite purpose, and that purpose had been 
accomplished. The Confederacy had been rent in 
twain ; its heart had been pierced. Not to him 
had his Commander-in-Chief to address the de- 
spairing cry of the Roman Emperor, "Varus, 
restore me my legions." There they were, singed 
with the fire, and begrimed with the smoke of 
battle on those ever memorable days of May, 1865, 
when the armies of the Union marched through 
the Capital, the very embodiment of the power 
of the people put forth in defence of their Constitu- 
tion and Government. No man in the vast assem- 
bly that witnessed the pageant doubted that the 
spirit of disunion had been crushed. No doubter, 
but believed in the right and the power of the Gov- 
ernment to defend its existence by a coercion of 
arms, when a coercion of laws had failed. The right 
and the power had received their complete and final 
vindication. 

Of Sherman, as one of our great commanders, 



27 

this is not the time nor place to speak at length. 
The history of the vast military operations of our civil 
war, that is to be the final authority, will not appear 
until the passions, the prejudices and the prefer- 
ences of the present generation shall have passed 
into oblivion. Then some future Jomini, out of the 
abundant materials at hand, will weave a narrative 
of those operations, comprehensive in its scope, and 
just in its criticisms of men and measures. Is it 
hazardous to predict, that the " March to the Sea " 
will be regarded as one of the most brilliant and 
decisive of all the campaigns of the war, and the 
commander, who so successfully conceived and ex- 
ecuted it, one of the greatest masters of military 
science ? 

It was after the evacuation of Atlanta that Sher- 
man, as he tells us in his Memoirs, decided to cut 
loose from his base and lead his victorious armies 
to the sea— an inspiration of genius, like his views 
on the conduct of the war at an earlier period, re- 
garded with doubt and anxiety in official circles, 
only to be triumphantly vindicated by its complete 
success. "None of us went further than to ac- 
quiesce," was the frank admission of the President. 
The obstacles to be encountered, and the means at 
hand to overcome them, had been measured with 
almost scientific exactness, and when the campaign 
had been finished by the fall of Savannah and the 



28 

surrender at Greensboro, there was no dissent from 
the conclusion, that it had been more fruitful in 
grand results than any of the events of the war, save 
only the almost cotemporaneous surrender at Ap- 
pomattox, and the disintegration of the Confederate 
Government. 

But the military fame of Sherman will not rest 
wholly on his march to the sea. To the diligent 
student, the operations that preceded it are full of 
interest and instruction. From Dalton to the cross- 
ing of the Chattahoochee he was confronted by as 
consummate a master of defensive warfare as either 
side had produced. Here on a field admirably 
adapted to the most brilliant display of strategy and 
tactical skill, these great leaders contended for vic- 
tory ; and when Sherman entered Atlanta, his ob- 
jective point, he had already earned his place in the 
front rank of our Commanders. 

Of Sherman, the patriotic citizen, free from all 
political ambition, intent only on employing his 
great talents for the public good, the verdict of the 
people has long since gone forth, and it is voiced to- 
day in the public expressions of sorrow which the 
announcement of his death has called out through- 
out the land. Such a verdict was doubtless more 
precious in his eyes than all the distinctions of 
office, or all the attractions of wealth. His civic 
virtues will not pale even before the splendor of his 



29 

military renown. His loyalty was intense. It per- 
vaded his whole being. It gave him strength and 
patience to endure official mistakes and popular de- 
lusions. To him the flag of his country was verily 
the symbol of her greatness. In its defence he un- 
hesitatingly turned his back on a lucrative and con- 
genial position in civil life, and from a loyal citizen 
he became a loyal soldier. "I will maintain my 
allegiance to the Constitution as long as a fragment 
of it remains," were the short, sharp, decisive words 
in which he made known his resolution. When the 
contest was over, no persuasion could induce him to 
accept political preferment, even the highest in the 
land. On retiring from his position as General of 
the Army, he chose rather to return to private life, 
without a single badge of distinction, save the price- 
less services he had rendered his country. 

Such was Sherman, true type of all that is best in 
our manhood, shining example of the ideal citizen 
and soldier, to be read and pondered by all men, 
who, whether under a reign of law or in the throes 
of revolution, desire to act well their parts. What a 
glorious life was his to live, what a glorious death, 
to die in the full assurance, coming from the hearts 
and consciences of the people, that he had nobly 



30 

performed his duty, that he had deserved well of 
the Republic. 

Very respectfully yours, 

(Signed,) Thos. Hillhouse. 

To the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, 
New- York. 

The preamble and resolutions were unanimously 
adopted. 



A Committee, consisting of the President of the 
Chamber, Alexander E. Ore., William E. Dodge, 
Abeam S. Hewitt, J. Edward Simmons, Samuel 
D. Babcock, John H. Inman, Moeeis K. Jesup, 
Richaed T. Wilson and William H. Webb was 
appointed to attend the funeral of General Sheeman. 



Chaeles S. Smith, 

President. 



GrEOEGE WlLSON, 

Secretary. 
New-Yoek, February 17, 1891. 



